NY State Office for Aging Takes Medicare Fraud Prevention Message to the Chinese American Community

A Medicare Fraud Summit, sponsored by NYSOFA in NY City Chinatown, was covered by two prominent Chinese American newspapers, World Journal and SingTao Daily News. These two Chinese Newspapers have the largest circulation among Chinese Americans in North America. Following is an English translation of the contents of the articles which appeared in those papers:

A special Medicare fraud prevention meeting was held on December 16, 2011 at the New York Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association in Chinatown, New York. The purpose of this meeting was to inform Asian American seniors about how to detect and prevent Medicare fraud and abuse.

The newspapers reported that government officials of all levels and many Asian American health and social services members attended this meeting.

The newspapers summarized a few key points covered during the meeting. These key points include:

The CMS Regional Administer suggested that Medicare funds will face bankruptcy in 2017 if current Medicare expenditures continue to grow at the current rate. Of all Medicare expenditures, the cost associated with increasing numbers of Medicare frauds and abuses is one of the big expenditures.

New York City Attorney General Office representative mentioned that a number of dishonest doctors, pharmacists, insurance companies, and seniors were prosecuted for Medicare fraud.

New York State government has implemented various programs to fight against Medicare fraud and abuse. Last year such programs helped New York to recover millions of dollars from Medicare/Medicaid Scams.

New York State Office for the Aging (NYSOFA) staff encouraged seniors to actively participate in detecting and preventing Medicare fraud and abuse. NYSOFA staff suggested watching out for free services that are not approved by Medicare. Be careful not to fall into traps of dishonest service providers who provide non-Medicare approved services to cheat government for Medicare reimbursements.

NYSOFA staff also shared a number of tips on how to protect oneself from Medicare fraud/abuse and suggested seniors to speak up when they suspect any illegal billings.

Both newspapers encourage their elderly readers to prevent Medicare frauds and abuses.